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> And it's not hard to imagine blockchain technology replacing currency and consumerism altogether. It is for me. How exactly would blockchain replace consumer

by scribu 9y ago

> And it's not hard to imagine blockchain technology replacing currency and consumerism altogether. It is for me. How exactly would blockchain replace consumerism? And replace it with what? > The deprecation of "easy" money, global theft, and warfare-as-the-norm - these are continuing imperatives and are good prayers for our earth. And on long time scales, it seems that blockchain tech tends toward, rather than away from, these things. Do you have any evidence for such a bold claim? Or at least a rational argument for why blockchain tech would lead to such outcomes?

jMyles 9y ago
> It is for me. How exactly would blockchain replace consumerism? And replace it with what? Painting with broad strokes: easy money / inflationary currency policy promotes spending over saving, right? So, with a less inflationary currency (or ecosystem of currencies), people will be less incentivized to spend in such a frenzied manner. I'm not really introducing anything new here; this is the basic Austrian critique re: price signals in the environment. > What evidence do you have for such bold claims? Well, I hope we can take the former as read: obviously a cryptocurrency with a less inflationary policy will promote deprecation of each money. As for global theft: the main infrastructure for nation-state level economic predation is monetary policy, and then trade policy as a secondary matter. Monetary policy may (again, in this admittedly utopian world I'm describing) be wrested from the state by virtue of cryptocurrencies. And trade policy with smart contracts. As for deprecation of warfare-as-the-norm: This, at least to me, is the logical consequence of the first two. If there is less rampant easy-money-consumerism, and no state-level monetary or trade policies, then warfare will increasingly be viewed as a sink of power rather than a fount. Am I being very hopeful here? Yes, I am. But I am very hopeful. I think that in these troubled times it is a great visionary exercise to ask yourself: what are some of the best things you can imagine happening for humanity in the next 50 years?
- scribu 9y ago
  Thank you for ellaborating. It seems like your argument is centered around inflation, which is a relatively new phenomenon. Regarding consumerism, perhaps you’re right that lack of inflation will reduce it. But what if, after a certain point, consumerism is the main driver of economic growth, the thing that enables all the really good stuff to develop, such as scientific development? Regarding warfare, before fiat currency, you could argue that some wars were waged in order to get access to gold and silver mines. But I hope you’ll agree that those were only a small minority. I’m excluding violence for the purpose of simply stealing gold and silver outright, because the equivalent can still happen in a blockchain world - just point a gun to someone’s head and tell them to transfer all their coins to your account.
  - jMyles 9y ago
    Well, not only inflation, but a disarming of the international corporate state's sole franchise in trade. Smart contracts cross borders in a nearly frictionless manner; the same cannot be said of Coca Cola or the World Bank.

by scribu 9y ago

jMyles 9y ago

> It is for me. How exactly would blockchain replace consumerism? And replace it with what? Painting with broad strokes: easy money / inflationary currency policy promotes spending over saving, right? So, with a less inflationary currency (or ecosystem of currencies), people will be less incentivized to spend in such a frenzied manner. I'm not really introducing anything new here; this is the basic Austrian critique re: price signals in the environment. > What evidence do you have for such bold claims? Well, I hope we can take the former as read: obviously a cryptocurrency with a less inflationary policy will promote deprecation of each money. As for global theft: the main infrastructure for nation-state level economic predation is monetary policy, and then trade policy as a secondary matter. Monetary policy may (again, in this admittedly utopian world I'm describing) be wrested from the state by virtue of cryptocurrencies. And trade policy with smart contracts. As for deprecation of warfare-as-the-norm: This, at least to me, is the logical consequence of the first two. If there is less rampant easy-money-consumerism, and no state-level monetary or trade policies, then warfare will increasingly be viewed as a sink of power rather than a fount. Am I being very hopeful here? Yes, I am. But I am very hopeful. I think that in these troubled times it is a great visionary exercise to ask yourself: what are some of the best things you can imagine happening for humanity in the next 50 years?

scribu 9y ago
Thank you for ellaborating. It seems like your argument is centered around inflation, which is a relatively new phenomenon. Regarding consumerism, perhaps you’re right that lack of inflation will reduce it. But what if, after a certain point, consumerism is the main driver of economic growth, the thing that enables all the really good stuff to develop, such as scientific development? Regarding warfare, before fiat currency, you could argue that some wars were waged in order to get access to gold and silver mines. But I hope you’ll agree that those were only a small minority. I’m excluding violence for the purpose of simply stealing gold and silver outright, because the equivalent can still happen in a blockchain world - just point a gun to someone’s head and tell them to transfer all their coins to your account.
- jMyles 9y ago
  Well, not only inflation, but a disarming of the international corporate state's sole franchise in trade. Smart contracts cross borders in a nearly frictionless manner; the same cannot be said of Coca Cola or the World Bank.